The Portland daily press., 1887-02-10
FROM WASHINGTON.
Trouble Caused by the CareIessness
of the House Engrossing Clerks.
The Opposition to the Mackerel Bill
Not Of Much Consequence.
More Pensions Granted to Claimant
In Maine.
President Cleveland Thought to Favor
the House Fisheries Bill.
Especial to the Press.l

Some Of the clerks of House committees
seem to have a most unaccountable faculty
for losing things. 1t would seem as though
an engrossed copy of long bill was some
thing large enough not to be readily lost
sight of, but twice within the past week the
| House has been compelled to pass q resolu-
tion asking the Senate to furnish them with
copies of bills, because their copies had been
In some way mislaid. The first one was the
Senate bill restoring to the United States
certain of the lands granted to the Northern
Pacific Railroad Company to aid in the con-
struction of railroad from Lake Superior
to Puget Sound, and to restore the same to
settlement. This bill has been in the hands
| of conference committee since the last
session, and mysteriously disappeared, leav-
ing no trace behind. The other was the
cable railroad bill, passed by the House re-
Gently and sent to the Senate. Monday the
Speaker made the following announcement:
"An engrossed bill has been mislaid and the
Clerk will read the resolution which is rem
dered necessary" The Clerk read as fol-
lows: Resolved, that the Senate be
requested to return to the House of Repre-
sentatiyes bill of the House (H. r. S976) to
incorporate the Washington Cable Railroad
Company of the District of Columbia" A
good deal of complaint was made last session
that the House engrossing clerks were such
bad spoilers that bills often had to be re-
turned from the Senate in order to have the
spelling corrected. Taking the former COM
plants with the present careless method of
allowing bills to be mislaid and lost, it looks
as though the House would do well to get
some new engrossing clerks.
The MackereI Bill.
Senator Palmer will tomorrow, Immediate
ly after routine business, call up again the
mackerel bill, and unless it is antagonized by
the post Office appropriation bill, which is
threatened, it viii be passed. Opposition to
the bill comes almost entirely from New
York, New Jersey and Delaware Senators,
with few others from the Southern States
Senator Gray of Delaware, however, sup
ports the bill The opposition comes from
the fish dealers of New York city and vicin-
ity, whose business will be injured somewhat
during the months in which the catching of
mackerel is forbidden. 1t is not, however,
strong enough to defeat the bill, though it
may succeed in delaying its passage for
few days until some of the appropriation
bills are passed
Posta, Matters.
A special mail service has been established
in Maine as follows: Riggsyille, Sagadahoc
county, from Arrowsic, five miles.
The following Star schedule change is an
nounced in Maine:
Route 3s5-Grand Lake Stream to Princeton.
Leave Grand Lake Stream daily except Sunday at |
z q. M. Princeton a m
Princeton daily except Sundays at 12 m. arrive
at Grand Lake Stream by p. M
Personal.
Henry II. Barnard, of Calais, and f. III.
Merrill and wife. of Portland, are here.
President Cleveland and the Fisheries
Several Democratic members of the House
committee on foreign affairs had an inter-
view with the President today in connection
with the retaliatory fisheries legislation now
pending in Congress. The interview was
confidential. The President sought to i'm
press upon the members of the committee
the necessity of making very clear and free
from ambiguity any measure relating to the
subject of the fisheries which Congress
might see fit to pass. If there was to be any
legislation on the subject, he said, it should
state definitely whether railroads and all
other carriers were TO be included in the pro-
hibition. While the President did not COM
NIT himself to any legislation on the subject,
the gentlemen present gathered from his
remarks that, as between the two bills, he
favored the House bill for the reason that it
is more explicit and mandatory in its charac-
ter
Of Interest to Mariners.
The Secretary of the Treasury today trans
mitted to the House communication from
the supervising inspector general of steam
vessels, calling attention to defect in the
present law regarding signal lights on both
steam and sail vessels, and recommending
that all vessels under way be required to
show signal lights not less than six inches in
diameter and the same in height.
Senator cuIion's Eulogy of Logan.
Senator Cullom delivered an eulogy on
Senator Logan today. Other business was
suspended. The chamber was crowded
Mrs Logan and family were present
Pensions Granted.
Pensions have been granted to Maine
people as follows:
Abram, father of Alfred Townsend, Bangor.
Charles w. Merrill, restoration, Richmond.
John Thornton, reissue, Togus.